Anthony Banda

Traditionalists may never fully embrace the approach, but it’s hard to argue with the results: through a quarter of the season, the Rays’ pitching staff has been lights out. By design, it’s a fluid and ever-evolving mix of hurlers. Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times provides an update on some particularly important arms for the AL East-leading team.

Most notably, prospect Brent Honeywell has encountered another hurdle in his effort to return from Tommy John surgery. He’s only slated for a week-long shutdown for nerve irritation in his right elbow, but this isn’t the first setback. The fact that Honeywell’s road back hasn’t been perfectly smooth doesn’t mean he won’t make it, but it does add to the uncertainty and bump back his timeline.

In Topkin’s assessment, the Tampa Bay front office won’t be able to consider Honeywell as a MLB option until July or August. He’s obviously going to be handled with plenty of caution given his high-ceiling billing and hiccups to this point. Honeywell is going to need a full arm build-up and even then will need to show he’s fully ready for the majors, having never yet pitched in the bigs. No doubt the Rays will keep a close eye on his workload even when he is ready for game action. Honeywell hasn’t yet topped 140 innings in a professional season and already missed all of 2018.

Clearly, then, Honeywell won’t be stepping into the opening in the rotation created when Tyler Glasnowhit the injured list recently. Nobody will, in fact. Skipper Kevin Cash tells Topkin that the club won’t tap a third starter, even on an interim basis. Rather, the club will continue to piece things together on a day-to-day basis behind rotation pieces Blake Snell and Charlie Morton.

Topkin warns not to expect any major acquisitions to plug the openings. Fortunately, Glasnow is said to be looking at an absence of only four to six weeks. That’s about as good an outlook as might have been hoped for when he left with forearm tightness. The injury might knock the 25-year-old out of surprise Cy Young contention, but hopefully won’t spoil his breakout season.

Plus, there are some other hurlers working back. Reliever Hunter Wood is close to being an option again for the MLB roster after hitting the IL with a shoulder issue, though he may take at least one more rehab outing. Wood showed an intriguing 18.0% swinging-strike rate in 6 1/3 innings to open the year. Former top prospect Jose De Leon is ready to move his rehab work to the highest level of the minors after a pair of High-A outings. Given his long and arduous rehab process, the odds are he’ll be given some time to work at Triple-A even when his assignment is up (which must occur on or before June 2nd). There’s no word yet on when Anthony Banda will be ready to begin his own rehab assignment after undergoing Tommy John surgery last June, but he was reportedly throwing from a mound late last month.

Rays lefty Anthony Banda will undergo Tommy John surgery, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times (via Twitter). Given the typical year-plus recovery timeline for this procedure, Banda will likely miss the remainder of the current season and most or all of 2019.

Banda came to Tampa Bay over the offseason as a key part of the three-team swap that sent outfielder Steven Souza to the Diamondbacks. He had turned into a notable prospect in the Arizona system, which he joined along with Mitch Haniger following the 2014 deadline deal that sent Gerardo Parra to the Brewers.

With the news, Banda will join another recent top pitching prospect acquired in a significant, relatively recent trade — Jose De Leon — on the road to a return from a TJ procedure. De Leon will surely hope to be ready at some point relatively early in the 2019 season. It’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility that Banda will be able to join him late next year, though of course the Rays will surely exercise caution.

In weighing a timeline, it’s also worth bearing in mind that Banda is still not established at the game’s highest level. The 24-year-old southpaw struggled in his first taste of the majors last year, but gave the Rays 14 2/3 useful innings this year, over which he allowed six earned runs while compiling ten hits against three walks. Banda also showed a health (95.4 mph average) heater, up from his numbers in 2017.

In truth, Banda’s limited MLB showing isn’t yet sufficient to draw any conclusions about his future. He has pitched well this year at Triple-A, though, after putting up middling numbers there in 2017. Through 42 frames over eight starts, he owns a 3.64 ERA with 10.5 K/9, 3.9 BB/9, and a 38.4% groundball rate.

The move puts another dent in Tampa Bay’s rotation depth, both for the present season and beyond. More immediately, the organization has at least finally welcomed Nathan Eovaldi back. And Yonny Chirinos is also off of the DL, though he has been optioned to Triple-A despite a solid start in his season in the majors.

Chris Archer will undergo an MRI on Monday to determine the extent of his injured groin, he told MLB.com’s Erik Erickson and other reporters. The injury cropped up during Archer’s start on Saturday, and the Rays ace said the problem was still bothering him today. Given the timeline, Archer said it was “questionable” whether he’d make his next scheduled start. Losing Archer would be another blow to a Rays team that has been scrambling for arms due to injuries and their unique usage of regular bullpen days, not to mention the potential impact it could have on Archer’s value as a potential trade chip at the deadline.

In further ominous injury news, the Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin reports (Twitter link) that southpaw Anthony Banda will visit with team doctors after being placed on the Triple-A disabled list due to a forearm strain. Acquired as the primary piece in the three-team trade that sent Steven Souza to the Diamondbacks last offseason, Banda has posted solid numbers at Triple-A this season and also made three MLB appearances for the Rays (one official start and two relief outings behind “openers” Sergio Romo and Ryne Stanek). Forearm injuries are always cause for concern, particularly since Tampa Bay has already lost youngsters Jose De Leon and Brent Honeywell to Tommy John surgery within the last few months.

Rays senior VP of baseball operations Chaim Bloom recently spoke with The Athletic’s Juan Toribio (subscription required) about the team’s controversial “bullpen day” strategy and the usage of relievers to “start” games by pitching an inning before turning things over to a multi-inning pitcher. Bloom said the front office has been “encouraged” by the results thus far, and very pleased with how the players and coaching staff have bought into the idea. Despite the relative success thus far, however, Bloom said the Rays won’t necessarily stick with the pitching strategy going forward. “I think time will tell, but we don’t want to shoehorn a group of players into a certain model just to say that we’re doing it….I think potentially if you have a different group of players with different strengths and weaknesses, you might do something different,” Bloom said. “But what we wanted to get away from was kind of doing the opposite, where I think previously the mindset was that no matter what the strength and weaknesses are of our player group, we’re going to force them to be in the so-called traditional model. We wanted to take an approach of, let’s assess the strengths and weaknesses of our group, and then try and figure out a way to build this in a way that gives them the best chance.”

The recent deal that sent Denard Span and Alex Colome to Seattle stands out as perhaps the biggest of the nine trades between the Rays and Mariners since Jerry Dipoto became Seattle’s GM in September 2015. The close relationship between Dipoto and Rays GM Erik Neander plays a large role, though Topkin expands on that topic as part of a larger piece about how Tampa Bay approaches trades in general. For instance, the Rays send several scouts to analyze another team’s player (or players) to get a variety of opinions before targeting someone in talks. The club also puts a particular focus on scouting the lower levels of the minors to find hidden gems; several players acquired from the Mariners, in fact, have been unheralded names who eventually cracked the big leagues.

The Rays are set to call up pitching prospect Anthony Banda, reports Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times. Topkin notes that it’s not yet clear whether the left-hander will merely be the 26th man for Saturday’s doubleheader or if he’ll be earning a longer look at the MLB level.

The centerpiece in the surprising trade in which Tampa Bay traded Steven Souza Jr. to the Diamondbacks, Banda has gotten off to a strong start in Triple-A Durham this season. Through 36 innings, the 24-year-old has posted a 44-to-16 K/BB ratio (11.0 K/9, 4.0 BB/9) with a 42.1 percent ground-ball rate and just one homer allowed. The resulting 3.50 ERA is bloated to an extent by a .375 average on balls in play behind Banda, with metrics like FIP (2.72) and xFIP (3.25) providing a more bullish outlook on his performance.

It won’t be the first MLB look for Banda, who pitched in eight games for the Diamondbacks in 2018 but struggled to a near-6.00 ERA in that small sample of work. The former top 100 prospect — Baseball America ranked him 88th heading into 2017 — had a rough season in both Triple-A and the Majors last year, but he’s looked much more like the 2016 version of himself so far with his new club.

Whether this proves to be a spot start or a longer-term audition for Banda, it’s hard to argue that he won’t have a crack at stepping into the team’s rotation at some point this season. The Rays entered the year planning to utilize a four-man rotation (Chris Archer, Jake Faria, Blake Snell and Nathan Eovaldi) with the would-be fifth slot in the pitching order being a “bullpen day” each week. However, Eovaldi was hurt early on in the season and has yet to pitch at the big league level.

Meanwhile prospects Brent Honeywell and Jose De Leon were lost for the season due to Tommy John surgery, while right-hander Yonny Chirinos, who’d stepped up as the fourth starter in place of Eovaldi, is now out for a month himself. Whether in a traditional starting role or in a hybrid capacity on the team’s bullpen days, Banda should earn a chance to prove that he can be a fixture on the Tampa Bay pitching staff for years to come in the near future.

The Rays, Yankees and D-backs have agreed to a significant three-team trade that will send outfielder Steven Souza from Tampa Bay to Arizona, infielder/outfielder Brandon Drury from Arizona to New York and prospects to Tampa Bay. The Rays will receive left-hander Anthony Banda and two players to be named later from the D-backs as well as minor league second baseman Nick Solak from the Yankees. Additionally, the Yankees will send right-hander Taylor Widener to the Diamondbacks. The teams have announced the trade.

The acquisition of Souza will be the second notable outfield pickup for the D-backs in as many days, as the Snakes added Jarrod Dyson on a two-year deal yesterday just minutes after losing out on J.D. Martinez, who signed a five-year deal with the Red Sox. Souza is a solid consolation price to that failed pursuit, as he’ll give the D-backs a right-handed bat with lesser power but superior defense to Martinez — and it’s certainly notable that he’s coming off a 30-homer season himself.

Souza, set to turn 29 in late April, hit .239/.351/.459 with 21 doubles, a pair of triples and 16 stolen bases in addition to his 30 home runs last season. While he can’t make up for the loss of Martinez’s bat on his own, he’s long shown plenty of pop at the plate and last season walked at a career-best 13.6 percent clip as well. He is, of course, not without red flags. Even if he’s able to sustain the uptick in walks, Souza figures to continue to hit for a questionable batting average so long as he continues to struggle with his overall contact skills. Souza whiffed at a 29 percent rate in 2017, and that actually represented an improvement over 2016’s alarming 34 percent strikeout rate.

That said, he comes to the D-backs with three years of club control remaining, meaning he’ll be a fairly long-term option for them in an outfield mix that also includes Dyson, impending free agent A.J. Pollock, David Peralta and Yasmany Tomas (though the D-backs would surely love to escape the remainder of Tomas’ onerous financial commitment).

Arizona will also add a former 12th-round pick, Widener, that turned in a strong season in Class-A Advanced last season when he tossed 119 1/3 innings of 3.39 ERA ball with a 129-to-50 K/BB ratio over the life of 27 starts. He’s had some durability issues in the past, with Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com noting last summer that he had ulnar transposition surgery in 2015 and dealt with back and knee injuries in college. There’s starter potential for Widener, but he’ll need to prove capable of handling a regular workload in the rotation.

The 25-year-old Drury, meanwhile, will give the Yankees the infield depth they’ve been seeking as they currently make evaluations of Miguel Andujar at third base and Gleyber Torres at second base. After trading Chase Headley and Starlin Castro this offseason, the Yanks lacked certainty at both of those positions, but Drury presents a more experienced option than any of their infield prospect that has seen plenty of Major League action at both slots. If Andujar and/or Torres prove ready to handle a full workload in 2018, then Drury can shift into a super-utility role and provide depth at a number of spots around the diamond.

Drury is fresh off a solid, if unspectacular .267/.317/.447 slash with 13 homers through 480 plate appearances this past season. Since establishing himself as a regular in the D-backs’ infield/corner outfield rotation in 2016, Drury has batted .275/.323/.453 with 29 home runs. He’s controllable for another four seasons and should factor into the Yankees’ Opening Day lineup, though which position he plays will likely be determined over the course of Spring Training.

Drury, a rumored target for the Yankees dating back to December, comes to the Yankees with more than 1000 innings of MLB experience at second base and more than 300 innings at third base; that division of labor was flipped during his minor league career, as he logged more than 3000 innings at the hot corner in the minors and just 620 at second base prior to reaching the Majors.

He drew above-average marks from Defensive Runs Saved and Ultimate Zone Rating for his work in 947 innings at second base this past season, though both metrics feel his limited big league work at third base has been below average. Drury also has 700 innings of corner outfield work under his belt (where he’s drawn below-average marks as well) and has even played six innings at shortstop in the Majors.

The acquisition of Drury likely puts an end to the oft-speculated possibility of a Mike Moustakas signing for the Yankees. And, because he’s not eligible for arbitration until next winter, Drury allows the Yankees to maintain plenty of financial flexibility, leaving room for in-season moves, which was reported to be a priority for GM Brian Cashman.

As for the Rays, the trade sends the latest of several signals that the team is looking to retool its current group and scale back payroll. Souza avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year, $3.55MM deal earlier this winter, and he’ll now join Corey Dickerson ($5.95MM) and Jake Odorizzi ($6.3MM) as arbitration-eligible players whom the Rays have shipped out in recent days. The subtractions of Odorizzi and Souza leave the Rays with a projected payroll of just $78.77MM, and that’ll further drop once it’s determined how much (if any) of Dickerson’s salary they’ll need to pay in 2018. The Rays would owe Dickerson 30 days of his non-guaranteed arbitration salary for the 2018 season if he clears waivers and is released — roughly $975K — so this trio of moves should dip their payroll into the $73MM range.

The 24-year-old Banda entered the 2017 season as BA’s No. 88 overall prospect, but he struggled through a down year in 2017, pitching to a 5.39 ERA with 8.6 K/9, 3.8 BB/9 and a 42 percent ground-ball rate in 122 innings in the extremely hitter-friendly confines of Triple-A Reno. The former 10th-rounder also made his MLB debut in 2017, allowing 17 runs in 25 2/3 innings with a 25-to-10 K/BB ratio. Even with that rough run in Triple-A and the Majors, Banda still has a potential future as a mid-rotation starter, per BA, whose scouting report also noted that he also showed the skills to be a quality late-inning reliever.

Solak, meanwhile, batted .297/.384/.452 with 12 homers and 14 steals through 130 games / 538 plate appearances split between Class-A Advanced and Double-A in his first full season in 2017. He also displayed strong K/BB ratios, striking out at an 18.5 percent pace to go along with a quality 11.7 percent walk rate.

It remains to be seen whether the trades of Souza, Odorizzi and Dickerson will serve as the catalyst for a full-scale fire sale in St. Petersburg, where the Rays still have highly appealing assets such as Chris Archer and Alex Colome. Technically speaking, the Rays have MLB-ready assets that can plausibly step into the fold in the place of Odorizzi, given the presence of pitching prospects like Brent Honeywell, Jose De Leon, Banda and Ryan Yarbrough, among others. Mallex Smith, meanwhile, is an option to step into the outfield in place of Souza or Dickerson, while veteran Denard Span can handle another outfield spot.

But, it’s also true that the Rays face an uphill battle in a competitive AL East — especially following the subtraction of two of their better hitters from 2017 and a rotation mainstay in Odorizzi. Viewed through that lens, there’s good sense for the Rays to continue to at least explore trade possibilities for the likes of Archer and Colome as they look to bolster their farm, improve their draft/international pools for the 2019 season and establish a new wave of controllable, pre-arbitration assets that can help their lower-revenue organization form a core in the next competitive cycle.

That type of thinking has drawn the ire of agents and the Major League Baseball Players Association this offseason, given the diminished number of teams that are even entertaining the thought of signing veteran free agents. But, it’s also factual that the system, as currently constructed in the latest CBA, favors aggressive tear-downs more than it does trying to walk the line between rebuilding and contending — a reality that could conceivably push the Rays into further action on the trade market.

FanRag’s Robert Murray got the ball rolling on the story by reporting that Solak was headed to the Rays for an unknown return (via Twitter). FanRag’s Jon Heyman tweeted that Drury had been traded to the Yankees. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic broke the three-team nature of the swap, including that Souza was going to the D-backs (Twitter link). Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times reports that Banda was coming to the Rays in the deal. Joel Sherman of the New York Post reported Widener’s inclusion in the deal (Twitter link). MLB.com’s Steve Gilbert added that there were a pair of PTBNLs going to the Rays in the swap as well (via Twitter).

The Diamondbacks will promote lefty Anthony Banda to start tomorrow in place of Taijuan Walker, per a club announcement. Walker is on paternity leave, so it’ll only be a short absence for him.

Banda, a southpaw who’ll soon turn 24, currently ranks as the game’s 68th-best overall prospect, in the eyes of the Baseball America prospect team. He is already on the 40-man, earning a spot last fall in order to be protected from the Rule 5 draft. The D-Backs picked up Banda (as well as Mitch Haniger) in the 2014 deadline deal that sent Gerardo Parra to the Brewers.

It’s not yet clear whether the D-Backs have any inclination to lean on Banda much at all down the stretch, but that could depend in some part upon how he looks in his MLB debut. Banda has managed only a 5.08 ERA in his 101 Triple-A innings this year, with 8.3 K/9 against 3.8 B/9, and didn’t exactly dominate in his 13 starts there last year.

Banda is viewed more as a steady potential MLB starter than a high-risk, high-upside play with electric stuff. But it’s also possible he could contribute from the bullpen in some capacity over the next few months. His readiness may have at least some impact on the club’s deadline plans, though Arizona’s approach over the next ten days surely won’t be driven to any great extent by Banda’s form in this spot start.